Dictation
Dictation is the core TypeWhisper workflow: press your hotkey, talk, and have transcribed text land in whatever application you are using. This page covers the activation modes and the dictation settings exposed in the Linux UI.
You choose how the main global dictation hotkey behaves:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Toggle | Press to start recording, press again to stop. |
| Push to talk | Hold the key to record; release to stop. |
| Hybrid | Starts on press. A short tap keeps recording (toggle-style); holding past ~600 ms stops on release (push-to-talk-style). |
📸 Screenshot needed: The activation-mode selector with Toggle, Push to talk, and Hybrid options visible.
See Global hotkeys for assigning and registering the dictation hotkey.
Press Escape during recording, transcription, or post-processing to cancel the dictation in flight. This is only active while a dictation is running, so it does not shadow modal dialogs or editors when you are not dictating.
Turn on auto-paste to have transcribed text inserted automatically after transcription completes. How that text is delivered depends on your per-app strategy — see Text insertion.
While you dictate, TypeWhisper shows a live microphone preview and a recording overlay. When a streaming-capable transcription engine is active, live partial-transcript text appears in the overlay as you speak. LLM responses stream into the overlay and the prompt palette token by token.
📸 Screenshot needed: The overlay showing live partial-transcript text appearing during streaming transcription.
You can configure which overlay widgets show (Indicator, Waveform, Text) on the Appearance page. Streaming behavior depends on the engine — see Transcription engines.
The Linux UI exposes these dictation settings:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Whisper mode | Optimizes for quiet/whispered speech. |
| Silence auto-stop | Automatically stops recording after detected silence. |
| Sound feedback | Plays a cue when recording starts/stops. |
| Audio ducking | Lowers other audio while you record. |
| Media pause | Pauses media playback during recording. |
| Aggressive short-clip transcription | Transcribes short, quiet utterances that would otherwise be discarded as silence. |
A short-speech policy uses peak-level and duration thresholds so that accidental taps and silent clips are dropped before they reach the transcription engine. The aggressive short-clip transcription option works in the opposite direction, keeping short quiet utterances that would otherwise be discarded.
📸 Screenshot needed: A dictation setting in its disabled state with the inline explanation of a missing external tool (for example, sound feedback disabled because
canberra-gtk-playis not installed).
Several dictation features depend on external desktop tools. When a tool is missing, the Linux UI disables the relevant control and explains why (including session-aware install hints).
| Feature | Tool required |
|---|---|
| Sound feedback | canberra-gtk-play |
| Audio ducking | pactl |
| Media pause | playerctl |
Clipboard-backed auto-paste and text delivery rely on additional tools — see Text insertion and Wayland notes.
- Global hotkeys — assign and register the dictation hotkey.
- Text insertion — how transcribed text reaches the target app.
- Text cleanup — post-processing applied to dictation.
- Appearance — overlay widgets (Indicator, Waveform, Text).
- Transcription engines — which engines support live streaming.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-06-17 | Initial version. |
| 2026-06-17 | Added Engine, settings, and System audio screenshots. |
| 2026-06-17 | Added recording-overlay screenshot. |